Jag Day - The Song
In 2001 Jim Hancock and Geoff Convery, long time members of the Coleby Plough Jag, wrote and composed an entry for the BBC Radio Lincolnshire Folk Songwriting Competition.
The song was performed by Jim and Geoff accompanied by Steve Hindley on piano accordian, all wearing their Plough Jag costumes, and eventually won the competition.
The song has been adopted by the Coleby Plough Jag as "our" song and adds a poignant moment to Jag Day as we remember past members of the team."
JAG DAY
Copyright © 2001 Jim Hancock
When crops lie frozen in the fields
and frost hangs heavy on the bough
and icy turf refuse to yield
to harrow and to plough
that's when the fiddler lifts his bow
that's when the fool misrules the day
and every ploughlad plays the lord
as the jag comes round again.
CHORUS:
Here's a toast to absent friends
to those we knew and those not met
and tell the ones who went before
the lads are dancing yet.
Through dawn chilled streets we make our way
from farmstead and from labourer's cot
throughout the towns of Lincolnshire
the guiser's eerie lot
In public bar & market square
Some stand, some cheer some turn & flee
From sooty face and ragged coat
And ill rhymed poetree.
CHORUS
A toast to every knight and lord,
to every fool who capered by
to every soldier for his song,
to every dame who died.
For like the dame who's born again
to welcome in the old new year,
We'll pass the hat and fill the cup
with merriment and cheer.
CHORUS
Let's hope in years as yet to come
In strange far times men not yet born
Will face the cold dark winter dawn
To play the Jag in turn
For Sergeant Time recruits us all
Some soon, some late, we all enlist
We answer to his bugle call
And trudge into the mist.
CHORUS x 2
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